In the Future in the Present
Feb. 12th, 2024 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueI continue to do a lot in any given day while also feeling terribly behind because of all the deadlines I'm behind on, all for things that don't pay my bills (or in some cases anything at all). Most impending are a huge pile of unfinished slush reading and 9/10 of my manuscript edits for Nothing in the Basement.
Friday:
On work breaks, packed the kids' weekend stuff for Ciro's and did Pilates. Ended work, ran Nico to a friend's house, headed into Boston for Boskone; was on panels about the idea of separatist space colonies (I moderated) and about writing an imaginary doctorate. Ate a quick sandwich in between in the lobby, which I'd packed in my purse for dinner. Parked at a cheap garage about a seven minute walk from the convention hotel; passed some fun public art. Stuck with that garage for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday:
More Boskone panels (screenwriting, then a discussion of hiking in Lord of the Rings); another packed sandwich. (This time, cheese and Branston pickle; yesterday was speck and hummus.) Waltzed for about 90 minutes. Caught up with writer friend Rob Cameron, in from NYC. Back home to do some magazine and scouting admin. Ate roast duck to celebrate Lunar New Year. Watched Jennifer's Body, which I hadn't seen. Was shocked by how underpraised the directing was; I remember a lot of buzz about the screenplay, but... Karyn Kusama directed Girlfight, which won Sundance! She's a protege of John Sayles! A really genius director who I guess got pushed into TV after this movie? Aggravating.
Sunday:
Spent an hour or two deep-cleaning the rug in the parlor (the cats' favorite room.) Then to a Boskone panel on the legal and economic rules surrounding ownership in space - what the treaties are and how I think they're going to be violated and who is going to get away with it. Then a song circle on celestial themes. (I sang Darkest of the Days, which has the solstice, the moon, and a collaborator named star.) Home to very quickly eat leftover duck and an orange, then headed to the dance studio to mambo for about 90 minutes. Scrubbed a pot in which carrots had burned (Mom making dinner for a friend undergoing chemo). Ate dinner, then picked up kids from Ciro and got them to bed.
Monday:
Pretty wiped out; physically tired after a physically demanding weekend. More admin for Strange Horizons and cub scouts - helping someone book a space, setting up a special issue, looking at a Poetry Foundation grant application. Spent two hours tweaking and formatting documents for a fellowship Chris and I are applying to, the Rhinebeck Writer's Residency, where we'd be able to finish revising our musical The Lady Takes the Mic. Short nap. Did Pilates. Made bone broth. Fed kids weird new "cosmic" Oreos that seemingly have Pop Rocks mixed into the cream. Do not recommend from a taste perspective but I guess experientially it is worth having a bite of one. A bite. Of one. Will play D&D later.
--
I should probably summarize what I actually said on panels, some of which was interesting, and some of which I'm the primary source on ("this is how I approach doing this specific thing" or "this is what I predict is going to happen in this area"). But I'm exhausted. Tomorrow is a huge snowstorm, so I imagine I'll be shoveling. And trying to get through slush and all the thousand things.
Always a bit weird to be on panels and constantly say totally true things I've done and remember that I've done a lot of stuff. It surprises me to recall or notice, even though it's obvious in a day-to-day way that I do a lot of stuff. Just none of it seems to matter beyond the moment, maybe? It's like I'm simultaneously messing up both sides of Yoda's "All his life has he looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was! What he was doing!" I am always so much in the moment that I can't remember or be satisfied with the past, even the earlier in the same day past, and I am always so aware of the pile of things that I still need to do, that stand in between me and where I want to go.
Friday:
On work breaks, packed the kids' weekend stuff for Ciro's and did Pilates. Ended work, ran Nico to a friend's house, headed into Boston for Boskone; was on panels about the idea of separatist space colonies (I moderated) and about writing an imaginary doctorate. Ate a quick sandwich in between in the lobby, which I'd packed in my purse for dinner. Parked at a cheap garage about a seven minute walk from the convention hotel; passed some fun public art. Stuck with that garage for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday:
More Boskone panels (screenwriting, then a discussion of hiking in Lord of the Rings); another packed sandwich. (This time, cheese and Branston pickle; yesterday was speck and hummus.) Waltzed for about 90 minutes. Caught up with writer friend Rob Cameron, in from NYC. Back home to do some magazine and scouting admin. Ate roast duck to celebrate Lunar New Year. Watched Jennifer's Body, which I hadn't seen. Was shocked by how underpraised the directing was; I remember a lot of buzz about the screenplay, but... Karyn Kusama directed Girlfight, which won Sundance! She's a protege of John Sayles! A really genius director who I guess got pushed into TV after this movie? Aggravating.
Sunday:
Spent an hour or two deep-cleaning the rug in the parlor (the cats' favorite room.) Then to a Boskone panel on the legal and economic rules surrounding ownership in space - what the treaties are and how I think they're going to be violated and who is going to get away with it. Then a song circle on celestial themes. (I sang Darkest of the Days, which has the solstice, the moon, and a collaborator named star.) Home to very quickly eat leftover duck and an orange, then headed to the dance studio to mambo for about 90 minutes. Scrubbed a pot in which carrots had burned (Mom making dinner for a friend undergoing chemo). Ate dinner, then picked up kids from Ciro and got them to bed.
Monday:
Pretty wiped out; physically tired after a physically demanding weekend. More admin for Strange Horizons and cub scouts - helping someone book a space, setting up a special issue, looking at a Poetry Foundation grant application. Spent two hours tweaking and formatting documents for a fellowship Chris and I are applying to, the Rhinebeck Writer's Residency, where we'd be able to finish revising our musical The Lady Takes the Mic. Short nap. Did Pilates. Made bone broth. Fed kids weird new "cosmic" Oreos that seemingly have Pop Rocks mixed into the cream. Do not recommend from a taste perspective but I guess experientially it is worth having a bite of one. A bite. Of one. Will play D&D later.
--
I should probably summarize what I actually said on panels, some of which was interesting, and some of which I'm the primary source on ("this is how I approach doing this specific thing" or "this is what I predict is going to happen in this area"). But I'm exhausted. Tomorrow is a huge snowstorm, so I imagine I'll be shoveling. And trying to get through slush and all the thousand things.
Always a bit weird to be on panels and constantly say totally true things I've done and remember that I've done a lot of stuff. It surprises me to recall or notice, even though it's obvious in a day-to-day way that I do a lot of stuff. Just none of it seems to matter beyond the moment, maybe? It's like I'm simultaneously messing up both sides of Yoda's "All his life has he looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was! What he was doing!" I am always so much in the moment that I can't remember or be satisfied with the past, even the earlier in the same day past, and I am always so aware of the pile of things that I still need to do, that stand in between me and where I want to go.
